Pardon my indiscretion, but I fear Germaine Greer may be turning into the grumpy old lady she so decried in her recent Counsel and Care lecture on the portrayal of older people. She recently attacked Maureen Lipman and Prunella Scales' TV characters in adverts as portraying older people as grumpy.
Am I alone in finding these characters hilarious precisely because I know they are caricatures? Who actually bases their attitudes towards others on Victor Meldrew or Miss Marple? Maybe Greer should listen to The Archers on Radio 4. Now there's an interesting assortment of older people. Sure, they are all parodies but we know that. The way to avoid being misunderstood is perhaps to follow the lead of Freda from The Archers - don't speak!
Which leads me to my next point, that when you say something there is always a danger that people pick up on the headline- grabbing angle, but they miss the serious message. And if we are talking about discrimination, I think the more important part of Greer's speech was the recognition that "clearly there are two kinds of aged: the powerful and the powerless".
Those who have enjoyed reasonable economic security in their younger days are more likely now to be living in sound housing, to be enjoying reasonable health, and so to remain active, pursuing hobbies, taking holidays and enjoying their grandchildren. They are not likely to be part of the 2.2 million living below the poverty line or spending day after day trapped indoors.
We live longer than previous generations, but some of us live longer than others; and so it is right and proper that we stretch those middle years, enjoying life to the full. But it is also right that there should be a rethink of how we will pay for it all once we stop earning, because there's going to be a longer period of that too.
Maybe we don't like to think about pensions in our youth, but it is not fair to interpret that as a denial of old age. This government has made some progress towards delivering fairer pensions to older people.
It is easy to complain that it is not enough, but I don't see a long queue to vote for a government promising to raise taxes to pay for a better system.
In the meantime, please don't anyone let Germaine Greer watch The Simpsons!
Helen Bonnick is a supervisor of school-home support workers and a social worker.
